Miracle Man

Joshua Ayers, famously known as "The 'Miracle Man", began his career as a cheap stage magician. He wasn't very good at first but then he discovered he was subconsciously hypnotizing his audience into “seeing" him perform incredible tricks. One night he saw the then-new Fantastic Four sitting in the audience. He boasted his powers were greater than theirs and apparently proved it when he humiliated the Thing onstage. That night he decided it was time he used his powers to get rich as a super-criminal. He has the distinction of being the first of many foes that made of hostage of Susan Storm back in the early days of the Fantastic Four. His career came to a screeching halt when Reed Richards deduced that the Miracle Man’s powers were all illusions. A burst of light from the Human Torch blinded him and destroyed his powers.

Eventually his vision returned but not his original powers. He sought training from the Cheemuzwa Tribe, a group of Amerindian psychics. They gave him psionic powers that he used to apparently destroy the surviving tribe members. He then tried to destroy Wyatt Wingfoot’s tribe but was defeated by the timely arrival of Wyatt, the Human Torch, the Thing, and Medusa. The Cheemuzwa reappeared, explained they had actually been ghosts all along, and took the Miracle Man away to another plane where they tried to teach him to use his powers properly. He escaped once and returned to wreak havoc before he was defeated by the Thing and Ghost Rider. The Cheemuzwa blocked his powers and took him away to teach him to behave.

The Miracle Man overpowered the Cheemuzwa and used his restored powers to try to re-enact the nativity at a Native American reservation in a crazed attempt to become God. He was defeated and returned to the Cheemuzwa's custody by the Thing and Ghost Rider.

The Miracle Man then joined a monastery. There he encountered Daimon Hellstrom and somehow gained the latter’s Darksoul. This restored his mind and all his powers. Another brief rampage followed before the Darksoul left his body. The Miracle Man finally lost his Cheemuzwa-taught powers, but retained his original hypnotic power.

Several months later he decided he needed an ally and attempted to free the Rhino, who was en route to Project: Pegasus for treatment. Coincidentally, the Thing was on the same bus that the impoverished Miracle Man was riding. The hypnotized Rhino fought the Thing but turned on Miracle Man when the latter’s hypnosis was revealed. Miracle Man was fleeing the scene when he was shot and killed by the Scourge of the underworld, who had been disguised as another passenger on the bus.

He was among those later resurrected by The Hood, initially to fight The Punisher. He clashed with the Punisher as part of the Hood's army and failed to defeat him, but escaped alive. While his allies were ultimately slain by the Punisher, the fate of the Miracle Man remains a mystery for now.